No he's talking about making websites for grandmas.
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Andrew DunnApr 13 '12 at 17:39

14

Wow. No, not spending time working for free on open source projects. And no, not making websites for grandmas (!!). I'm pretty sure OP is just talking about companies that are looking to hire contractors for 10-20 hours a week to work on their projects. It's not uncommon, and I think it's an intelligent question. @Andr
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Adam RackisApr 13 '12 at 19:06

@Adam Your comment appears to implicitly denigrate open source developers, as if they are foolish for "working for free on open source projects". I find that slightly irksome. Either the question you suggest is being asked, or the one I initially thought, seem perfectly valid. It was unclear to me which one he was actually asking, so I thought I'd make the suggestion. (Wow.)
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Cody GrayApr 13 '12 at 19:53

@The - I was irked by Andrew's comment, not yours :) My apologies if the irkedness came out toward you.
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Adam RackisApr 13 '12 at 19:55

@The - come to think about it, if freelance work (which to me implies paid work on the side) is supported on careers, then I think open source work should be too - once you support the one, the marginal cost of supporting the other should be low.
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Adam RackisApr 13 '12 at 19:56

To explain my question further, here is an example of what I'd love to be able to do: "I need a short PHP script written that does this: [short description]. My budget is $50 but it would be nice if could be lower than that. I'm not in much of a hurry, but it would be nice if this could be done within the next two weeks. Regards, MyName.". I know there are other sites out there that help me search for freelancers, but I don't have any experience with them. Perhaps you have some recommendations? Thanks, and apologies for my poorly explained original question.
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EnchiladaApr 13 '12 at 19:57

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@Enchilada - that kind of thing is more suited to guru.com and rent-acoder.com - but those sites have horrible reputations. Renting a coder to write a script for $50 bucks will probably never work well for reasons I can't quite articulate (but speculate exist). But I think supporting part-time, 20 hour a week side work is a valuable addition careers could make
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Adam RackisApr 13 '12 at 20:11

I have rented services from coders and designers for such amounts in the past and it has worked fine. The problem is finding them. They're scattered here and there, some with their own unknown websites. I was just looking for improvements to that experience :)
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EnchiladaApr 13 '12 at 20:52

Lol, sorry that I came across as rude, it's just that after doing much freelance web development I'm kind of embittered by the whole thing, and also I said that to demonstrate effectively that you weren't talking about open source software. And I have made a website for a grandma before to document her family history, she was very polite and paid well!!! :p
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Andrew DunnApr 13 '12 at 22:08

I wonder if "freelancing" isn't just a little too narrow. Could it possibly be expanded to "self employment"? Back in the day, I used to make a living as a self employed database consultant. Contracts ranged from 4 weeks to 2 years. And yes, I got one gig that only required 2 days worth of effort, but that was an anomaly.
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Walter MittyJul 2 '13 at 10:53